Two years after its sun-drenched signing ceremony, Newt Gingrich's Contract With America has lost a lot of its luster inside Washington's Beltway, where critics have branded House Republicans too extreme and too unwilling to compromise with the Senate or President Clinton.
But GOP challengers for House seats this year vociferously disagree. While Republican Party officials have cut some slack for candidates in moderate districts, most nonincumbent candidates interviewed in San Diego this week said they are proud to march under the brash budget-slashing and deregulatory banner that ushered Republicans into majority status and Georgia's Gingrich into the House Speakership in 1994.
Many of the GOP hopefuls are also following the contract's example of de-emphasizing potentially divisive issues such as abortion, affirmative action, gay rights and gun control.
The Republican challengers interviewed said they prefer drawing clear distinctions between themselves and their Democratic opponents on economic policy. And they express confidence that their opponents will be unable to paint them as extremists this fall. They note that Democrats tried that tactic--and failed--last year in the special election won by Rep. Tom Campbell, R-Calif., a moderate who only partially embraced the contract.
``All the candidates I talk to are excited about what 1994 was all about,'' said Peter D. Roff, the political director of GOPAC, a Republican campaign organization headed for several years by Gingrich. GOPAC has been sponsoring a week-long ``candidate college'' in San Diego to help challengers hone their messages.
Recent legislative achievements also have brought a rebound in the public's opinion of the Republican-led 104th Congress. Polls now indicate that more voters (49 per cent) regard it as a success than a failure (42 per cent).
And GOP pollster Paul B. Holm Jr. notes that so-called generic ballot support for the party's congressional candidates, following a spring decline, steadied over the summer, despite President Clinton's continuing high approval ratings. Without allowing for an expected convention ``bump,'' Holm said voter leanings in House races split out at about 40 per cent Republican, 40 per cent Democratic and 20 per cent undecided.
In addition, Holm said, when respondents were asked if they supported positions that coincide with those in the contract, support ranged from 70-80 per cent.
Jim Nalepa, a Republican challenger who eagerly signed the contract in 1994, only to lose to veteran Democratic Rep. William O. Lipinski of Illinois, is sticking to the same basic principles in a repeat bid this year. Only this time, he says, he believes he has a good chance to take Lipinski out.
Nalepa said that what few doubts he had about the Republican- led Congress have now disappeared, first with this summer's flurry of legislative activity, including an overhaul of welfare, food safety and health care policy, and then with the selection of Jack F. Kemp, a vocal proponent of economic growth and deregulation, as the running mate for presidential nominee Robert Dole.
``Up until the last couple weeks, it was a very muddled vision for us,'' he acknowledged. ``But now I expect no wholesale changes [in my message] from 1994. I am standing shoulder to shoulder with the Republican agenda, [and] looking at the political climate, I feel extremely comfortable.''
Almost all Republican candidates interviewed said that there's firm agreement on economic principles. ``I've strongly supported the congressional agenda--smaller government, lower taxes and less regulation,'' said Brent Perry, whose bid to unseat freshman Democrat Ken Bentsen in Texas recently received a big boost from a favorable court decision redrawing his district's lines. Bill Phelps, who's aiming to oust Rep. Ike Skelton, D-Mo., agreed, describing himself as ``an enthusiastic supporter of the GOP agenda in Congress.''
The pattern appears to hold even in many districts regarded as moderate. Political scientist James Fay, who faces an uphill battle this fall against 12-term Rep. Fortney H. (Pete) Stark, D- Calif., said he supports most of the Republican economic agenda. Fay, however, has carved out moderate stances on social issues that were not in the contract.
``On gun control, I'm more moderate than the party as a whole,'' Fay said. ``I'm sensitive to the environment as an issue. I would not vote for a total ban [against abortion] in the first trimester. But I feel I'm with them on the core values of smaller government.''
Many Republican challengers in moderate districts have decided to stay ``on message'' by avoiding controversial social issues and sticking instead to conservative economic principles, sprinkled with references to such bipartisan subjects as crime and education. Indeed, in interviews, no candidate volunteered views on issues such as abortion, gay rights, affirmative action or immigration without being asked.
``I don't like the term `moderate,' but I'm not a captive'' of any ideology, said businessman Ben Brink, who's running this fall for a second time in a moderate Silicon Valley district against Rep. Anna G. Eshoo, D-Calif. ``I'm part of the `radical middle'-- capitalist, conservative, anti-government, but socially libertarian with a `small l.' ''
But candidates in districts where the Christian Right is strong say they won't shy from addressing moral concerns. Brian Babin, who's running for the East Texas seat being vacated by retiring Democratic Rep. Charles Wilson, said he emphasizes ``traditional standards of morality'' along with the usual economic message when he's on the stump.
And Californian Bill Conrad said he differs from previous challengers to Democratic Rep. Gary Condit because he is a proud social conservative. He said he intends to paint Condit as a fiscally conservative Capitol Hill deal maker.
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